Stunned in a Graveyard

I was in a cemetery in Mobile Alabama yesterday and happened to look down at a bronze grave marker.

What I saw stunned me.

For you Atlanta Braves fans, the Braves won the Western Division in 1969 during the first year of divisional playoffs in Major League baseball. The Braves had three future members of the hall of fame on that team: Hank Aaron, Phil Niekro and Orlando Cepeda.

They had no bigger fan than this 15 year old boy.

Unless it was his 52 year old mother. She drove around Reynolds honking the horn after the Braves won the Western division.

The celebrating and horn honking was short-lived though. The New York Mets came to town and swept the favored Braves in three games. The Miracle Mets who were almost in last place the year before went on to beat the Baltimore Orioles in five games to win the World Series that year.

The Mets had a couple of young pitchers on their team by the name of Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan who went on to have fairly good careers themselves.

They also had a center fielder by the name of Tommie Agee.


In game three of the World Series, which was the first ever World Series game played at Shea Stadium in New York, Agee homered in the bottom of the first inning to give the Mets the lead.

He also made two incredible catches in center field in that game. On two separate occasions with men on base he robbed hitters of extra bases, catching one ball in the webbing of his glove and making a sliding catch with two outs and the bases loaded.

When he came up to bat after that second game saving catch, he got a thundering standing ovation from the New York fans.

There is no doubt it was the loudest ovation ever given to a player at Shea stadium up to that time. It was definitely a career moment for Tommie Agee.

And it was also a moment that this 15 year old baseball fan never forgot.

You can imagine why I was stunned when I happened to look down and see Tommie Agee’s grave yesterday.

The thing that struck me was that this one time sports icon has been reduced to a small bronze marker in a graveyard among thousands of faceless people. There were no flowers and the little base that would hold a vase was broken.

Obviously there is a lesson in this story.

I’ll let you figure it out.

But you can find a hint in the book of Psalms. Chapter 103: 15-16